1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a water discharging apparatus to be installed in a bathroom or a shower room.
2. Background Art
In recent years, bathing and showering have been considered as effective means for refreshing or alleviating stress in addition to a simple habit of washing a body. In order to meet such a demand, a multifunctional type water discharging apparatus comprising various water discharging means having different water discharging directions and configurations, for example, a body shower, a head shower or beating hot water and capable of selecting water discharging means corresponding to a personal taste.
For example, FIG. 17 shows an example in which a water discharging apparatus 200 disclosed in JP-UM-A-2-112758 is installed on a wall W of a bathroom. In this drawing, the reference numeral 201 denotes a hot and cold water mixing discharge device connecting a faucet 202 to a center. A pole 205 is connected to the back face side of the hot and cold water mixing discharge device 201 in an erecting state. A hand shower 203 and a head shower 204 are coupled to the pole 205. Hot and cold water generated in the hot water mixing discharge device 201 can be selectively discharged by properly switching nozzles 207 and 208 of the hand shower 203 and the head shower 204 through a passage switching handle 206 respectively.
On the other hand, such a multifunctional type water discharging apparatus requires a plurality of water discharging means, their fixing members and switching handles. Consequently, components are necessarily increased. Moreover, such a water discharging apparatus becomes one of the main equipments used in a bathroom or a shower room, of which presence cannot be ignored. For this reason, in the selection of the water discharging apparatus, importance is addressed to an outer appearance in addition to a functional aspect thereof. In particular, recently, sparing one's time in a bathroom tends to be increased with spreading of half body bathing or an aromatic therapy (aromatic treatment) in a bathroom. Accordingly, the water discharging apparatus is likely to be seen for a longer time. In the conventional multifunctional type water discharging apparatus, however, a large number of components are simply assembled together in many cases so that there addressed such a problem of an impression of being disorder, or lacking of a total sense of the integration as the whole apparatus.
In the conventional water discharging apparatus, moreover, the hot and cold water mixing discharge device is extended horizontally in a longitudinal (axial) direction. This makes the waterdrops, stacking onto the upper or side surface of the hot and cold water mixing discharge device, difficult to flow. Therefore, there is a problem in that as the waterdrops are kept and dried, the surface of the hot and cold water mixing discharge device might be contaminated with fur. Furthermore, the hot and cold water mixing discharge device is disposed horizontal, while a water discharging portion such as a shower hose is often connected in a vertical or longitudinal (depth) direction. Therefore, when someone attempts to clean up the surface of the device for getting rid of the contamination, there is also a problem in that a wiping direction of the cleaning is not constant, which ends up a cleaning efficiency becoming low.
Further, in some cases of the hot and cold water mixing discharge device being installed in a shower room, the device may be provided on a panel P which is disposed on a corner as shown in FIG. 18. The corner inner portion surrounded by the panel P can be utilized for the space for disposing the piping of a cold water supply and a hot water supply whereby it is not necessary to provide a piping space on the back of a wall with a wall bulged onto an indoor side. Consequently, a certain sufficient room space can be kept. In such a case, however, if the hot and cold water mixing discharge device is disposed in horizontal direction, a wide width is inevitably secured as a width L1 of the installation panel P. Accordingly, a depth L2 of the installation space becomes also increased. Alternatively, in the case of the hot and cold water mixing discharge device being installed on the back face (corner portion) of the panel P, it eventually becomes necessary to take a large corner of the space if the hot and cold water mixing discharge device has a horizontal dimension. As a result, it was quite difficult to achieve an object of securing a sufficient indoor space.
The invention has been made to solve the problems and has an object to provide a novel water discharging apparatus capable of relishing a plurality of water discharging configurations with improving an outer appearance as well as a cleaning condition.